The Monthly Digest

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,608 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

I thought this was Azed’s finest puzzle for a while in terms of the overall quality of the clues, with the best ones being very good indeed. In terms of difficulty, I felt that it was somewhere just below the middle of the spectrum, although we so rarely have a plain puzzle that falls much beyond that mark that I may have to think about recalibrating the difficulty meter.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 12d, “Made to feel old since one’s put on strange diets (10)”. The first thing that a compiler looks to achieve when writing a clue is soundness, closely followed by fairness to the solver; after that would come a pleasing surface reading, a good dollop of deception, and a well-disguised break between the definition and the wordplay. Here Azed has achieved a nap hand. The use of ‘old since’ to indicate SENS is the key to the construction – on the surface we see ‘Made to feel old’ and only later do we find out that we have been deceived, but in the nicest way possible. This is not a difficult clue, but for any novice setters looking to develop their skills it is one which warrants a close inspection.

13a Dim listener chattering might make such a troubadour die (8)
A neat &lit, where a rearrangement (‘chattering’) of DIM LISTENER could produce the solution (‘such a troubadour’) and DIE. The Chambers definition of ‘chatter’ leaves room for doubt over its suitability as an anagram indicator, but the OED gives ‘to shiver, shake’, so it’s absolutely fine.

15a Grand hostelry providing spirits (often enormous) (4)
Based on the definition alone there are two possibilities for the unchecked first letter, but the wordplay (a single-letter abbreviation of ‘grand’ and a three-letter hostelry) make the correct choice very clear.

16a Fiercest backs avoiding wingers in intense contest (5)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘fiercest’ is reversed (‘backs’) and is stripped of its first and last letters (‘avoiding wingers’), resulting in a hyphenated (3-2) term for an intense contest.

19a Skilful performer, OK for ton? One may get caught at long leg (8, 2 words)
A seven-letter word for a skilful performer gets the letters OK in place of one of its T’s (‘OK for ton’) to produce a (4,4) cricket stroke which could well see the batsman being caught at long leg.

23a Lord accepts opening for what 13 may offer (8)
A four-letter (obsolete) term for a lord or master contains (‘accepts’) a four-letter ‘opening’ (often designed to allow the passage of air). The solution is a verse of satirical or heroic character which the troubadour at 13 would have written and performed.

27a Drams knocked back including starter of Irnbru? What fou fellow may do (5)
A straightforward wordplay has a four-letter word for ‘drams’ being reversed (‘knocked back’) around (‘including’) the first letter (‘starter’) of ‘Irnbru’, but there are a couple of points to note. Firstly, the use of ‘fou’ in the definition: since the solution is given by Chambers as Scots, ‘What drunk fellow may do’ would be insufficient. ‘What drunk Scotsman may do’ would be fine, but Azed has chosen instead to use a Scots word for ‘drunk’ to make the clue more interesting. The second point concerns the use of ‘Irnbru’: it is considered unacceptable to include redundant words in a letter selection element, so ‘No. 1 from Adele’ is a valid indication of A but ‘No. 1 from Sam Smith’ is no good for S. However, a single hyphenated word is perfectly valid, so I don’t know why Azed chose ‘Irnbru’ rather than the correct name of the drink, Irn-Bru. Known as “Scotland’s other national drink” it has been sold under its current name since 1948 and is apparently “Made in Scotland from girders”, although the 0.002% concentration of ammonium ferric citrate suggests that there may not be too many girders to the gallon.

31a Having entered university blue’s required to study (5)
‘Enter’ here is used in the sense of ‘admit’, so the solution is a five-letter term for dark blue or bluish-grey after it has let in the usual single-letter abbreviation for university.

32a Add a couple of ducks to pet uncle exercised (8)
Azed adds some interest to a simple anagram with an inventive definition which effectively requires the solver to pre-process it by translating ‘ducks’ into ‘noughts’.

33a Vehicle I must shift front to back? It has excellent turning circle
A combination of a four-letter vehicle and the letter I (from the clue) has its first letter moved to the end (‘must shift front to back’). The solution is another vehicle, this one having a flexible connection between the front and rear section in order to improve its manoeuvrability; it has been shortened, which I suppose will also have helped to reduce the size of its turning circle.

4d Tooted once like a famous piper welcoming queen? (5)
Azed demonstrates one of his favourite tricks, here using ‘Tooted once’ not to indicate an old word meaning ‘tooted’, but a word in current use which share a meaning with an old (Spenserian) sense of the word ‘tooted’. The queen is a single-character abbreviation used in a monarchical context and the piper shares his epithet with the wagtails which have recently spent a lot of time scouring our lawn for tasty morsels.

5d Monkey should be fed nothing yielding inertia (7)
A six-letter Indian name for certain species of monkey contains (‘should be fed’) the usual single-letter representation of ‘nothing’.

6d Suicide swallowed stuff (7)
A clever clue, and a simple charade of a four-letter word for a subcontinental suicide (often seen in an alternative six-letter form) and a three-letter word meaning ‘swallowed’.

7d Blockhead upset after imbibing supply of tea? (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] upset’ or ‘overturn’ is seen containing (‘after imbibing’) a three-letter word for a vessel which is very likely to offer a (generous) supply of tea.

18d With little support around misshapen tree was wobbly (8)
Here we have a four-letter word meaning ‘with [a] little support’ outside (‘around’) an anagram (‘misshapen’) of TREE. Again, not a difficult clue but the construction is very satisfying.

20d Like some art related to name on the way up (7)
More deception in the wordplay here, the first element being not ‘related to’ (which one might assume from an initial inspection) but simply ‘related’, producing a three-letter word which is followed by a reversal (‘on the way up’) of a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] name’.

21d Discover bum exchanging cap for heroin (7, 2 words)
An informal term for what was once euphemistically called the BTM (‘bum’) has its first letter (‘cap’) exchanged for the single-character abbreviation for ‘heroin’. The solution is divided (3,4).

24d Sundae, middle of sweet stuff, not going round (6)
The three central letters (‘middle’) of a five-letter word for ‘sweet stuff’ have the letters NOT (from the clue) surrounding (’round’) them to produce a type of sundae, though not the ice-cream sort.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,607 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

I felt that this puzzle nudged the needle on the difficulty meter up to the halfway mark, helped by the four long entries around the perimeter. The clues struck me as being generally very good, and I thought the puzzle presented a reasonably stiff but perfectly fair challenge.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 21d, “Historical race held in the past renewed (6)”. Nothing too difficult about the wordplay here, the solution being concealed inside ‘past renewed’ – incidentally, I’m all in favour of a ‘hidden’ or two within this sort of puzzle because they provide a way for the solver to get a toehold, often the trickiest part of the solving process. ‘Anyway’, I hear you are asking, ‘why has he picked out this clue for comment?’ The answer is the little word ‘the’ in the clue. Since it follows ‘held in’ it must be part of the hiding place, but no part of ‘the’ features in the solution, and there is a rule that the hidey-hole in a ‘hidden’ must not contain any words that don’t contribute to the answer. Well, there is, but it is widely accepted that the definite and indefinite articles are excluded from this stricture (as long, of course, as they don’t interfere with the required sequence of letters in the clue). Is there any justification for this exemption? Not to my mind, but that’s the way it is.

1a Being financially extended limits ‘born rolling’ in building method (13)
A nine-letter word meaning ‘financially extended’ (the ‘being’ is de trop) contains (‘limits’) an anagram (‘rolling’) of BORN, producing a (9-4) hyphenated solution.

11a Stop works, finishing early? One rolls out barrels (6)
A two-letter interjection meaning ‘stop!’ (or one third of Santa’s favourite phrase) is followed by a five-letter plural of the Latin word for a work (ie ‘works’), from which the last letter has been omitted (‘finishing early’).

12a Judge dismissed jury after absorbing day with points (4)
The old ‘missing comma’ surfaces here [if it’s missing, how can it surface? – Ed], its absence being felt between ‘dismissed’ and ‘jury’. The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘judge’ is ‘dismissed’ (‘discarded’) by the word JURY that has taken in (‘after absorbing’) the standard abbreviation for ‘day’.

17a Gently, maybe, part of basic education is fed to backward child (4)
Basic education is constituted by the “three R’s”, and one of those R’s is contained by (‘fed to’) a reversal (‘backward’) of a three-letter word for a child. The definition by example will have been latched onto quickly by fans of the late, great Douglas Adams, but may have proved a little trickier for those who think Ford Prefect is a type of car and the Norwegian coastline came about by accident. In the words of the holistic detective himself:

Let’s think the unthinkable, let’s do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.

22a Going round the bend, granny has little time for dad’s old sister (5)
Containing (‘going round’) the letter representing a type of bend familiar to plumbers is a three-letter word for ‘granny’, following which we have the usual abbreviation (‘little’) for ‘time’. I suspect Azed may have toyed with ‘older’ rather than ‘old’ to indicate that the solution is given by Chambers as ‘archaic’, which would make for a more satisfying surface reading but really doesn’t work as a qualifier for the definition.

25a Until no longer in use, indefinite number stored, running out (4)
One of the weakest clues in this puzzle, the single-character used to represent an indefinite number is contained (‘stored’) inside an anagram (‘running’) of OUT.

27a Keyhole maker in short is taking on a matter of chance with no opening for Yale (7)
Another comma goes AWOL, here between ‘short’ and ‘is’. A shortened form of ‘is’ is followed by (‘taking on’ used to indicate juxtaposition) a seven-letter word for a matter of chance from which the first letter of (‘opening for’) ‘Yale’ has been removed.

31a What is possibly extracted from pine trees? This is (7)
A nice composite anagram &lit, where the letters of PINE TREES can be rearranged (‘possibly’) to form the solution (‘This’) plus IS. For an &lit, the definition (ie the whole of the clue) here is unusually precise.

32a X act, rather improper within – soft-core, might one assume? (13)
The number represented by the Roman numeral ‘X’ and a four-letter word for an act (or a legal document, usual involving the transfer of property) has an anagram (‘improper’) of RATHER inside (‘within’), the solution being hyphenated (6-7).

2d Second college crew beside river get soaked, upended (6)
A two-letter word meaning (inter alia) ‘beside’ is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘river’ and a reversal (‘upended’) of a word meaning ‘to get [something] soaked [by immersion]’. While I was familiar with the solution in its plural form as the name given to inter-college rowing races at Oxford during Hilary term (Chambers says ‘Lent term’, but we didn’t have such a thing), I don’t remember coming across the meaning seen here. As far as I recall, the leading boat was simply the ‘1st VIII’, the next was the ‘2nd VIII’ and so on, until you got down to the ones crewed by those with rather different ambitions, known by names such as the ‘Inebri VIII’ and the ‘Four Nick VIII’.

3d Scots show falseness of revolutionary dispute (8)
A simple charade of a three-letter term for ‘revolutionary’ (or a revolutionary) and a five-letter word meaning ‘to dispute’. The ‘of’ is part of the definition, ensuring that a transitive verb is indicated by a transitive phrase, but I’m slightly surprised that Azed has used the second wordplay element, given that it forms the root of the solution.

4d Paltry nip mixed in another one? (6)
Another neat clue, here we have anagram (‘mixed’) of NIP inside another (three-letter) term for a ‘nip’. I’ve never been convinced about ‘mixed’ as an anagram indicator when applied to a single word or group of words; I prefer to see ‘x mixed up’ in this situation. Where there are two separate word groups involved, ‘x mixed with y’ is fine.

6d Harsh sound I’d released turning up rackets (5)
A seven-letter word for a harsh sound (the eight-letter adjective ending -ent is probably more often seen) loses the letters ID (“I’d released”) and is reversed (‘turning up’).

7d Marble vessel to deliver (4)
Three definitions for the price of one, the first being the least familiar and the last being a cricketing term.

16d Falcon allowed round queen by king? (8)
Here we have a three-letter word meaning ‘allowed’ containing (‘going round’) the name of an English queen (who most people are aware is no longer with us) and the usual monarchic abbreviation for ‘king’.

23d Bird’s prey rook initially dropped (5)
A six-letter word meaning ‘[to] prey’ (itself an alternative spelling of a word which is also the name of a large black bird) has the usual abbreviation for ‘rook’ removed from the start (‘initially dropped’) to form an adjective applied to something belonging or relating to a bird or birds, ie “Bird’s”.

24d Student producing piece of work financially rewarded on early English (5)
Not hard to work out the answer from the definition and the two-letter abbreviation for ‘early English’ that rounds off the solution, but the ‘piece of work financially rewarded’ is pretty obscure. According to the OED, “Originally in the Cornish tin-mines, now also in Derbyshire lead-mining: in the phrase upon ??? (also by the ???), and attrib. as ???-bargain, ???-man, ???-work (also as vb.), ???-worker, ???-working, ???-workman: denoting a system of payment by measurement or by the piece, adopted in paying for work which brings no immediate returns, as distinct from tribute; hence, work of this character; dead-work.” ‘Tribute’, by the way, is the proportion of the value of the ore raised which is paid to the miners.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,606 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

The needle on my difficulty meter seemed to be hovering just below the middle of the scale with this one. There were only a couple of clues that stood out in terms of quality, but taken overall they were a pretty good set.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 9a, “Duffer, one on a bike by the sound of it (7)”. The PEDALLER/PEDDLER homophone has been used by setters, as Nat King Cole might have put it,  ‘many times but not so many ways’. The best cluesmiths will either avoid these hackneyed wordplays entirely or look  to apply a fresh twist to them. Here Azed decides to bring something new to the party (nothing to see here, Sue Gray) by replacing the usual definition of ‘trader’ or the like by ‘duffer’, a word we usually expect to describe an unskilful person but which can also be applied to ‘a peddler of sham jewellery etc’. So far so good. But we have to ask ourselves whether ‘duffer’ is a definition of peddler: a ‘duffer’ is a sort of peddler, but not all peddlers are duffers, in the same way that a corgi is a type of dog, but not all dogs are corgis. So ‘duffer’ is a definition by example, and needs to be indicated as such. When the definition is at the end of the clue, a question mark is usually the ‘cheapest’ way to achieve this. It can also be an option if the definition is at the beginning, but only if the clue lends itself to being divided up. The more general solution is to include an exemplification indicator, such as ‘say’, ‘for instance’,  or ‘maybe’. Two possibilities for fixing this clue would be:

“Duffer? One on a bike by the sound of it” or “Duffer, perhaps one on a bike by the sound of it”

6a What actor hopes to get, dispensing art without hesitation (5)
A (4,4) phrase describing what any actor would hope to be offered is missing (‘dispensing’) the consecutive letters ART in order to produce a word which anyone who used to watch Call My Bluff on a regular basis might well, like myself, associate in perpetuity with the programme.

10a Mythical creatures going ‘Plop’, energy filled, in lake (9)
An anagram (‘going’ – take your pick from the possible meanings of ‘go’ in Chambers, although ‘to break down’ is probably the best) of PLOP containing the usual abbreviation for ‘energy’ (‘energy filled’) is itself contained by a four-letter word for a lake. It is debatable whether this clue constitutes an ‘offshoot &lit’, where part of the clue forms the wordplay and whole clue stands as the definition; I would prefer to classify it as a normal definition+wordplay clue with &lit overtones.

12a Reindeer, young male, galloped in harness (6)
A three-letter (originally and chiefly North American) word for a little lad (or a small amount) with a three-letter word meaning ‘galloped’ inside (‘in harness’) produces a word for a reindeer clearly shown by Chambers as obsolete. I can only think that Azed did not notice this or I’m sure that he would have indicated it, although it must be said that the standard qualifiers such as ‘worn-out’ or ‘ancient’ wouldn’t make any sense in the surface reading.

13a In court he managed suit following extremes of correctitude (6)
A nicely-disguised cæsura between definition and wordplay, the latter being an anagram (‘managed’) of SUIT following the first and last letters (‘extremes’) of ‘correctitude’. 

16a Hairline cracks, not i.e. to do with old gnomon (6)
An anagram (‘cracks’) of HAIRLINE without the letters IE (‘not i.e.’). If you didn’t need to refer to Chambers to check the obsolete (‘old’) jocular sense of ‘gnomon’ to which Azed is referring here then you get a bonus point (it makes sense, but I don’t recall coming across it before).

18a Pudding consumed? In place of second you’ll see I hold forth rarely (10)
A seven-letter word for ‘pudding’ and a three-letter word for ‘consumed’, with the second letter of the result being replaced by ‘I’ (from the clue).

28a Lewd arbitrator switching one character with another (6)
A six-letter term for an arbitrator has two letters swapped over in order to produce the solution. Did Azed intend that ‘characters’ would lead the solver to a particular pair of letters, which might represent specific individuals in, say, a text message? No, he would have been much more explicit if that had been his plan.

33a Transpose headword right to left, a hindrance (7)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘transpose’ is followed by the reversal (‘right to left’) of a term for a headword, more familiar (to me, at least) when used to describe a mathematical proposition.

1d Nation lost being intrigued in political groups (5)
An eleven-letter word for ‘being intrigued’ (just about, anyway) without the letter sequence NATION (‘Nation lost’) produces an Italian term for groups of men organised politically.

2d You might find one I’d blown mustering herd on plain? Wrong (9)
A composite anagram &lit of the best sort as far as I’m concerned, with very little ‘padding’ being added to the equation. The letters of the solution (‘one’) and ID when rearranged (‘blown’) produce an anagram (‘mustering’) of HERD ON PLAIN. You could argue that the ‘Wrong’, while required by the definition, is superfluous to the wordplay and therefore this isn’t a true &lit. You’d probably be right.

3d I like getting between the sheets, showing predilection (6)
When you see ‘getting between the sheets’ or similar in an Azed puzzle you can be pretty sure that something is going to be inserted in BED, and here it is I (from the clue) and a two-letter word for ‘like’.

5d Rag treated entrails and parts of pelts rendered smooth (not 10 but 10, 2 words)
The wordplay is straightforward, an anagram (‘treated’) of RAG plus a word for ‘entrails’, but finding the solution in Chambers may be less so, particularly given that the solution is two words, (5,5), and not a single word as suggested by the enumeration. It can be found buried deep within the entry for the first word.

7d Act the tyrant loaded with flexed rod in grip (6, 2 words)
One of the many synonyms for ‘drunk’ (ie ‘loaded’) has an anagram (‘flexed’) of ROD in its grip, producing a (4,2) solution.

8d As a student attending university, at the right place (4, 2 words)
This clue strikes me as a bit messy, given that the three words in the middle could be read as the wordplay. It doesn’t help that it’s fallen victim to the old ‘missing comma’, here in the definition between ‘student’ and ‘attending’ (‘Attending as a student’ is the natural order). We then have the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘university’ plus a three-letter word meaning ‘at the right place’ (or time), but the appearance of ‘at’ both in the clue and the answer is unfortunate.

14d Thoroughly cleanse improper chat that’s come into view (9)
An anagram (‘improper’) of CHAT is followed by a five-letter verb meaning ‘[to] come into view’; I’m no fan of ‘has’ being used as a juxtaposition indicator, so I’m not keen on “that’s” (ie ‘that has’) being used to link the two wordplay elements here.

17d Dormitory for Scottish farm hands bird’s turned up in daily (7)
The bird that once famously attacked Michael Parkinson (no, not Grace Jones – that was Russell Harty) is reversed (‘turned up’)inside a four-letter word for a ‘daily’ which is seen more often in crosswords these days than anywhere else.

20d Varsity with delicacy excel in play (6)
An element of indirection in the wordplay here, with first element being not the name of a particular (rather fine) university, but a two-letter abbreviation of its name; the second part is a four-letter word for ‘delicacy’ in the diplomacy sense.

26d Private room set up, not the first, for the promotion of language study (5)
A six-letter word for a private room (or a cupboard off a room) has its first letter removed (‘not the first’) before being reversed (‘set up’), the result being an abbreviation for a specific branch of linguistic study. The way that the wordplay is phrased actually suggests that the word for the room is reversed prior to having its first letter removed; determining which is now the ‘first’ letter is, as they say, left to the reader as an exercise.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,605 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

I thought this puzzle was a shade harder than last week’s, but still a little below average difficulty. It had all the hallmarks that one associates with an Azed production, although it perhaps lacked some of the brio of his very best offerings.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 23d, “Gang violence? Name applied to wars covers volumes (6)”. Here we have an example of the accuracy that pervades Azed’s clues. There is a temptation to indicate BOER by ‘war’, but this would be an error; the attributive noun ‘Boer’ is indeed used to identify either of two wars fought between Britain and South Africa, but it cannot be used on its own to represent a particular war any more than ‘First World’ can – no-one would ever be described as having ‘fought in the Boer’. What about ‘battle’ for Trafalgar? Well, you might say that Nelson fought ‘at Trafalgar’, but the ‘at’ here is key – Trafalgar is the site of a battle, not the battle itself. In general, unless the dictionary gives the proper noun as representing the conflict itself, or a particular type of conflict (see the entry for ‘Vietnam’ in Chambers), indications such as ‘war’ or ‘battle’ alone will not do.

The clue prompts another thought: ‘vv’ is given by Chambers as an abbreviation for ‘volumes’, but what if only ‘v’ were given for ‘volume’ – would, say, ‘spans volumes’ then be acceptable for ‘contains VV’? The answer to this is ‘technically, no’, any more than ‘ff’ is (or are) ‘fines’. But crosswords would be boring indeed if setters weren’t allowed a little licence when the result isn’t unfair to the solver, and I wouldn’t have a problem with ‘fines’, ‘goods’ etc. There are certain editors that I believe would be less tolerant; to be on the safe side when setting, say, a Listener puzzle, I would try to find an alternative, for instance ‘one fine after another’.

13a Sport activity? It gives catching practice (5)
I can’t remember coming across this word before – I’m not sure that the definition in Chambers is entirely accurate, but sine I learned everything I know about baseball from Peanuts cartoons there may be an element of ultracrepidation creeping in here. The wordplay is a charade of a three-letter word meaning ”sport’ and a two-letter word for ‘activity’.

14a This writer takes shelter in scrum (5)
I didn’t like this clue very much – the combination of ‘takes’ being used as a throwaway juxtaposition indicator and ‘in’ being there simply to link the wordplay to the definition results in a deception which I think borders on the unfair; the solver could reasonably expect ‘takes…in’ to indicated that the two-letter word for ‘this writer’ was to be put around (rather than before) the three-letter word for ‘shelter’ which is a frequent visitor to crosswords.

17a Annoyed, not having leader in final? (4)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘annoyed’ has a three-letter word meaning ‘having [a] leader’ removed (‘not having leader’) in order to produce the solution. As in 14a there is a deceptive aspect to the wordplay, but here it is absolutely fair.

21a Number of candles within fancy red cake decoration? (6)
A word for something that would be equal (fire regulations permitting) to the number of candles on your birthday cake is contained by (‘within’) an anagram (‘fancy’) of RED. The solution is the name of one of those little silver balls that are used for decorating cakes – though not in California, where their sale is banned.

29a They establish level by means of line and bit of string (5)
A nice clue, the wordplay being a charade of a three-letter word meaning ‘by means of’, the usual abbreviation for ‘line’, and the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘string’.

31a Was wobbly English vicar, retiring, housed in part of college? (8)
The standard abbreviation for English and a three-letter abbreviation of a title prefixed to the name of a member of the clergy are reversed within a four-letter word describing a feature of many Oxbridge colleges around which the main college buildings are arranged.

32a New Englander always clutching behind (9)
Here we have a three-letter contraction (common in poetic and cruciverbal contexts) of a word meaning ‘always’ containing (‘clutching’) a six-letter adverb meaning ‘behind’, the result being a term for an inhabitant of one of the New England states (implied by Chambers but given explicitly by the OED).

34a Hut collapsing in strain, rarely to be relied upon (6)
An anagram (‘collapsing’) of HUT is put inside a three-letter word for ‘strain’ in the ‘put demands on’ sense to produce a word meaning ‘reliable’ which is given by Chambers as ‘rare’, hence the ‘rarely’.

1d Rude name for oldie, bloke coming round about experience (12)
A six-letter word for a fellow outside (‘coming round’) a two-letter word for ‘about’ and a four-letter word meaning ‘[to] experience’ delivers a hyphenated (6-6) term for an elderly person shown by Chambers as ‘offensive slang’.

2d Play girl, very bad person (4)
A double definition clue, a term for a very bad (or very impressive) person or thing is also the name of the heroine (in the central rather than idealized sense, note) of Frank Wedekind’s Earth Spirit (1895) and Pandora’s Box (1904), now usually performed together in a shortened form under the title of the girl herself (this also being the stage name taken by Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie in 1962, after her manager described her as ‘a real ???? of a kid’.

3d Fungus I found inside a huge fish (7)
The letter A (from the clue) is followed by a five-letter word for a large, flat-bodied fish (while a two-word name may be more familiar, the single word is given by Chambers) within which is found the letter I (again from the clue).

4d Trumpet played tenderly (no more) grips other ranks (6)
Azed has been quite kind here both by putting the ‘no more’ in brackets, thus making it clear that the letters MORE should be removed from a two-word phrase meaning ‘played with tenderness’, and by explicitly using the words ‘other ranks’ rather than ‘men’ to indicate the two-letter abbreviation which must be inserted into the result.

9d Joint, OK, in a lido swinging (8)
A three-letter verb meaning ‘[to] OK’ is to be put inside an anagram (‘swinging’) of A LIDO.

18d Address etc adjusted after being taken in by spinner? (7)
An anagram (‘adjusted’) of ETC is ‘taken in’ by a four-letter term for something used by an angler – a spinner is an example of such an item, hence the question mark.

20d Inveigh against pirate taking wife on board (7, 2 words)
A six-letter word for a pirate ‘takes on board’ (ie contains) the usual single-character abbreviation for ‘wife’, the outcome being a (5,2) phrasal verb.

30d Improper desire for winter sports venue (4)
To round things off we have another clue comprising two definitions, the first being found in Chambers and the second in Austria.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Azed 2,604 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

After last week’s stern test, something rather more straightforward. Truth be told, something very straightforward indeed by Azed’s standards. 

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 32a, “Changes name of uneasy Dennis (8)”. The wordplay is discussed below, but the point that I want to look at here is the definition. ‘Uneasy Dennis changes name’, apart from being more succinct, would read better – so why didn’t Azed write the clue that way? Because the solution is formed from a transitive-only verb, so it must be defined by another word or phrase which would similarly be followed by an object. Hence ‘changes name of [someone/something]’ works, as would ‘renames’ (although that is uncomfortably close to the solution), but ‘changes name’ alone won’t do, and wouldn’t be seen when Azed is at the helm..

1a Historical dance with swords mostly fitting including adult (8)
An eight-letter word for ‘fitting’ has the last letter removed (‘mostly’) and contains the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘adult’.

13a Cook goose with steamer, being ready for eating? (8)
A charade of a two-letter word for ‘[to] cook’, a four-letter type of goose (of the Hawaiian kind), and a two-letter abbreviation prefixed to the name of a steamship.

16a TV control turning on head? (5)
That familiar two-letter piece of ‘commercial jargon’ meaning ‘on’ or ‘in the matter of’ plus a three-letter informal term for the human head are reversed (‘turning’) to find something that would only be found in physical ‘control’ form (ie a knob) on seriously superannuated TVs.

19a Like leafy growth, star-shaped, I observed on centre of poppy inside (10)
An eight-letter word meaning ‘star-shaped’ (which one could probably guess even if one didn’t know it) has the letter I (from the clue) and the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘poppy’ inserted (‘inside’).

24a Indian peasant when retiring sheltered by family (5)
A two-letter word meaning ‘when’ is reversed (‘retiring’) inside (‘sheltered by’) a three-letter word for ‘family’.

27a Cat trapped in alarm creating minor set-to once (8)
A three-letter slang term for a cat (more familiar as a five-letter word with -gy on the end) is ‘trapped’ within a five-letter word for an alarm, the answer being an archaic spelling of a word still in regular use.

28a Fine Easter feature in unaccompanied pieces – vocal exercises required (8)
The usual abbreviation for ‘fine’ and an important three-letter feature of Easter as far as I’m concerned are contained by a four-letter word for unaccompanied pieces.

32a Changes name of uneasy Dennis? (8)
A five-letter word for ‘uneasy’ (a seven-letter version is more common, I would say) is followed by the first name used by the former host of Family Fortunes who subsequently had a very tough time in Coronation Street. The solution, if divided (2,6), is the name by which Shirley Macleod, who sadly died last month,  was better known to new wave music fans of the 1970s and 1980s. She was the female vocalist with The Tubes, whose stage act was something to behold; I saw them around 1978 when they were on a tour which subsequently had to be cut short after male singer Fee Waybill fell off the stage while wielding a chainsaw and broke his leg. It could have been worse, not least for those sitting in the front row.

1d Wine I objectively preferred with fish served up (5)
The objective form of the first person singular pronoun is followed by a reversal (‘served up’) of a three-letter fish. The ‘preferred’ is there for the benefit of the surface reading, and should be interpreted in the wordplay along the lines of ‘put first’.

6d Brand’s original source detectable in cribs, endlessly (5)
The Brand in question is an 1865 Norwegian verse tragedy; the name of its author was the inspiration for the stage name taken by James Bateman, who between 1968 and 1971 regularly and famously recited his poems on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Here is The Thumbnail – by Henry Gibson (to be read in a southern drawl):

Did you ever stop to figure
Why the thumbnail is so hard?
Well it hasn’t any choice
With all that skin to guard.
It may look fat and pudgy
But its heart is good and true.
It’s prettier than a toenail
And easier to chew.

8d Old-fashioned helping? I had one after dividing e.g. pork? Not me (6)
A two-letter representation of ‘I had’ and a two-letter word meaning ‘one’ are seen splitting (‘dividing’) a four-letter term exemplified by pork (‘e.g. pork’) from which the letters ME have been omitted (‘not me’).

17d A Greek letter inscribed in container of Mesolithic era (7)
The letter A (from the clue) plus a three-letter Greek letter are contained by (‘inscribed in’) a three-letter container of the baked bean kind.

19d My young had a tough upbringing, showing interest in it? (6)
This clue looked more interesting at first glance than it turned out to be. The wordplay simply involves a four-letter word meaning ‘interest’ (or ‘role’) being put inside those two letters that so often are indicated in crossword land by ‘it’.

21d Uniform, vivid, length made right? (6)
A six-letter word meaning ‘vivid’ has an L (‘length’) replaced by (‘made’) the standard abbreviation for ‘right’.

26d They get driven in smart Lancia with no car mat, all over the place (5)
A nice definition is made possible by a rather clunky wordplay, where the words SMART LANCIA must be rearranged (‘all over the place’) without the letters of CAR MAT (‘no car mat’). In this sort of clue there would often be two anagram indicators, since the letters to be removed are not consecutive in the words from which they are to be taken. If the clue read ‘all over the place with no car mat’ I would have no problem, because the rearrangement could result in ?????CARMAT, from which the ‘car mat’ could then be omitted, but as it stands I think the ‘smart Lancia’ requires its own anagram indicator. I’d favour something along the lines of  ‘Battered car mat removed from otherwise smart Lancia they get driven in’, although it’s still rather cumbersome.

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,603 ‘Wrong Number’

Difficulty rating: (6.5 / 10)

The ‘Wrong Number’ puzzle was introduced by Ximenes in the 1950s, and Azed tends to serve one up every two or three years. That’s often enough for me, as I wouldn’t say that it was a favourite of mine. Whilst Printer’s Devilry and Spoonerisms puzzles give Azed the chance to demonstrate his originality, the Wrong Number gimmick almost inevitably results in a lot of anagrams (here 20 in 36 clues!) and letter selection indicators (here 11). They are also extremely difficult for new solvers to get their heads round, and there are invariably several competitors who submit a clue to the wrong word.

This variation is quite a bit trickier than a standard Azed, particularly in the early stages of solving; it also means that a few clues are likely to have a somewhat ‘forced’ word play in order to include the additional definition. Some entries are hard to indicate using just a single word, so don’t expect all the one-word definitions to be of ‘dictionary standard’. I thought this offering was far from simple and any relatively inexperienced solver who completes it without assistance has done very well.

Just to be clear (since Azed’s preamble might not be) – the clues themselves are all normal, the wordplay and the definition leading to a solution of the length given in the clue; what is not normal is that rather than being entered into the grid in the position belonging to this complete clue, the solution is entered at the position belonging to another clue (for a solution of the same length) which contains within it a second, one word definition of the solution (this defining word also playing a normal role in the clue in which it appears). So taking 33a as an example, the wordplay indicates an anagram (‘Crooked’) of RONNIE plus C (‘caught’) and the definition is ‘displaying cruel conduct’, with the length of the solution matching the enumeration ‘(7)’; but NERONIC is not entered at 15a, instead it is entered at 24a, where the clue contains the second definition, ‘Fell’. In the ’normal’ interpretation of 24a, ‘Fell’ serves as the anagram indicator. Another solution will be entered at 33a, its auxiliary definition being one of six words of ‘Crooked Ronnie caught displaying cruel conduct’ (as you might expect, the one that has clearly been accommodated only with some difficulty).

You will find that the solution at 12a is lacking a clue. Those entering the competition will need to provide a clue for this word which also includes a one-word definition of the entry at 1a, ie a clue which could be labelled as ‘1a’ and is of the same form all the other clues in the puzzle. The use of ‘buttocks’ as the extra definition is allowed but not recommended, particularly given the number of alternatives. 

Following the notes I have provided a list of grid positions together with the word which is the definition of the entry at that grid position and the identity of the clue which provides the solution.

5a Like upright text (in short), alias one’s cracked, making Greek dance (7)
A three-letter abbreviation for text of the normal, upright kind (as opposed to italic) is followed by an abbreviation meaning ‘alias’ containing the Roman numeral for one (“one’s cracked”).

13a With start of eulogy I abandoned false praise in gravelly tone (4)
An anagram (‘false’) of PRAISE without the first letter of ‘eulogy’ and the letter I (‘with start of eulogy I abandoned’).

15a Climbing dens a safeguard for last of mice in a row (6)
A five-letter word for ‘dens’ reversed (‘climbing’) around the last letter of ‘mice’.

21a Giggly girl with the group exuding mere whiff of happiness? (9)
A three-letter term for a girl or young woman given by Chambers as ‘derogatory’ is followed by a concatenation of THE (from the clue) with a four-letter letter word for a group, dropping (‘exuding’) the first letter (‘mere whiff’) of ‘happiness’. Not too hard to sniff out the ‘additional definition’ word here.

22a Mother-in-law traditionally displaying silver with application in clothes (9)
The chemical symbol for silver and a two-letter word meaning ‘with application [to]’ are contained by a five-letter term for ‘clothes’.

24a Fell timeless bits of atoll arc – such as are dead (7)
A slightly strained clue, with &lit overtones. The wordplay involves an anagram (‘fell’, ie ‘dire’) of ATOLL ARC from which the abbreviation for ‘time’ has been removed (‘timeless’).

31a Wherein one may find special fruit clusters? (5)
A true &lit (though perhaps not Class 1), being a charade of the usual abbreviation for ‘special’ and a four-letter word for ‘fruit clusters’, specifically those you’d find on a bine.

32a Cherished scripture is keeping translator getting stuck into it (7)
The combination of a three-letter word meaning ‘is keeping’ and the standard (if rarely seen) abbreviation for ‘translator’ is ‘getting stuck into’ the two letters still frequently found in crosswords representing ‘it’ in the Clara Bow sense. I haven’t even underlined ‘cherished’ as being part of the definition, because frankly it is there purely to indicate which solution should be placed in this grid location.

2d Stock explosive in erstwhile spring drill (8)
An anagram (‘explosive’) of STOCK inside an obsolete (‘erstwhile’) three-letter variant of a common four-letter word meaning ‘[to] spring’.

3d Can odd bits of potato rear crookedly? (5)
The definition here is qualified by Chambers as ‘North American slang’.

7d Publication plugs this cup I love – like a sip? (6)
A composite anagram (no, really) where the letters of PUBLICATION can be rearranged (‘plugs’, a strange choice of word) to form the solution (‘this’) plus CUP I O (‘love’). 

8d Left beds in eager broadcast documentary (9)
An example of the wordplay being expanded to satisfy the requirements of this type of puzzle – ‘beds’ is superfluous and can be ignored when solving the clue.

20d Place label in surface for e.g. cleavers (8)
The ‘cleavers’ in the definition by example here can also be spelt ‘clivers’.

23d Pen going round university, touching, for sponsor (6)
A three-letter word for a pen (of the porcine enclosure sort) containing (’round’) the usual abbreviation for ‘university’ plus a two-letter piece of commercial jargon meaning ‘concerning’ (‘touching’).

26d Friends having to climb pass (4)
Not the meaning that one normally would associate with the solution here, it relates to the second instance of the headword in Chambers, with the sense of a hill pass or a gap in a fence.

27d Blow missing boxer’s head, fray’s ending, making one livid (4)
A four-letter word for a blow (or the sort of thing you might have been fined for holding during lockdown) missing the first letter (‘head’) of ‘boxer’ and followed by the last letter (‘ending’) of ‘fray’.

(definitions are underlined)

The list follows, for use if you have completed the puzzle or want a bit of additional assistance.

Across:

1a: the definition of the entry at this position is ‘buttocks’, the full clue for the solution is at 3d
5a: the definition is ‘text’, the clue is at 32a
11a: caper (5a)
12a: malformation (clue to be written by competitors as a replacement for 1a)
13a: eulogy (30a)
14a: ‘snarly’ (1d)
15a: safeguard (23d)
18a: skeletons (24a)
21a: whiff (4d)
22a: application (17d)
24a: fell (33a)
28a: malaise (22d)
29a: growth (20d)
30a: record (9d)
31a: fruit (34a)
32a: cherished (18a)
33a: conduct (11a)
34a: imprisons (31a)

Down:

1d: personification (19d)
2d: explosive (14a)
3d: potato (25d)
4d: swaying (21a)
6d: bird (28a)
7d: publication (15a)
8d: beds (16d)
9d: file (13a)
10d: pale  (27d)
16d: style (8d)
17d: monster (22a)
19d: march (2d)
20d: cleavers (29a)
22d: drug (6d)
23d: touching (7d)
25d: bent (12a)
26d: climb (10d)
27d: blow (26d)][/su_spoiler]

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,602 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2 / 5)

Perhaps slightly more difficult than last week, but still I think a little below the middle of the spectrum. The foreign word at 31d not given by Chambers should have been familiar to most if not all solvers, and the clue to it could hardly have been clearer. I didn’t feel that this was one of Azed’s finest efforts: several of the clues were on the clunky side, and it didn’t seem to have had the final ‘polishing up’ which can add a touch of gloss.

Setters’ Corner: The clues at 8d, 17d and 23d contain the wordplay elements ‘bit of entremets’, ‘bit of plush’ and ‘bit of charcuterie’, in each instance indicating the first letter of the third word in the group. Leaving aside the question of whether ‘bit of’ is an acceptable way of selecting the first letter of a word (arguably any piece of the word is a ‘bit’ of it), my issue is the appearance of the same wordplay device three times in the space of eight clues. Crossword editors will normally allow a term to be used only once in a puzzle for the same purpose (having ‘around’ in one clue to indicate containment and in another clue to represent ‘ca’ would be absolutely fine, and there are a few exceptions, repeated use of ‘in’ to show insertion for example being permitted), and I suspect that like myself most setters keep track in some way of the various abbreviations and indicators that they have used in order to avoid duplication.

In a recent puzzle I seem to remember that Azed used ‘left’ in two clues to indicate L – I didn’t have a big problem with that, not least because it can be hard to find suitable alternatives for a single word that delivers a single letter, but with letter selection indicators there is no excuse. In 8d ‘Finally taking taste of entremets’ would be fine, as would ‘one scrap of plush’, in 17d and ‘first piece of charcuterie’ – and that’s using the same words (entremets etc) to provide the necessary first letter. Letter selection indicators are a boon to the setter (although some editors like their usage to be kept to a minimum), but they allow so much flexibility that I find it disappointing when they are not used artfully.

1a Not in haste? Wrong, and (in short) on time (12, 3 words)
Things get under way with an &lit, albeit not a classic. An anagram (‘wrong’) of NOT IN HASTE is followed by the informal shortening of ‘and’ that often joins fish to chips and the usual abbreviation for ‘time’. The whole clue stands as the definition of the (2,3,7) solution.

10a Like a snort? It’s found in den on once retiring (6)
The “It’s found in” here simply links the definition to the wordplay, which has the combination of a four-letter word for a den and an obsolete (‘once’) two-letter form of ‘on’ being reversed (‘retiring’).

13a Burrower clearly inside blind (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘clearly’ (and ‘rightly’, ‘skilfully’, ‘thoroughly’ etc) is contained by a verb which originally meant ‘to sew up the eyelids of’ and would have been used with reference to the training of hawks; in a transferred sense it then came to mean ‘to close the eyes of (a person)’, and thence it acquired the meaning of ‘to blind’ or ‘to hoodwink’ (which originally referred to covering the eyes with a hood – have I confused you yet?).

14a Brightly coloured fabric, reverse of worthless in brown (7)
That four-letter biblical word for ‘worthless’ (given by Chambers but not in OED) which often pops up (or back) in barred puzzles is here put inside a familiar three-letter word for ‘brown’ before the whole lot is reversed (‘reverse of’).

15a God embraced by group coming together in prayer (4)
A single-letter abbreviation for ‘God’ (from the Latin) is contained (’embraced’) by the term for a group coming together for a spot of sewing or spelling, producing a word for a prayer. The solution is given by Chambers as obsolete, but rather surprisingly Azed chooses not to indicate this.

19a Before being taken in by dissembler, boss had no knowledge of this (9)
An archaic two-letter word meaning ‘before’ is ‘taken in’ by a seven-letter term for someone making a pretence (not the more obvious six-letter word, note), the result being the sort of job that’s done ‘on the side’.

29a Half getting submerged in Scotch mist (4)
‘Half’ here indicates that we need to take half of an eight-letter word for ‘getting submerged’ in order to get a Scots word for ‘mist’.

34a E.g. Clare lives with boy, name concealed (6)
This ‘Clare’ stands at the entrance to Clew Bay in County Mayo and is (apparently) famous for housing not just the boy in the clue but also the 15th century pirate queen Gráinne O’Malley. The wordplay has a two-letter word for ‘lives’ followed by a three-letter word for a boy into which the usual abbreviation for ‘name’ has been inserted (‘name concealed’).

2d Native American house with a windmill sail inverted on top (6)
One of the few clues in this puzzle (5d is another) where the break between the definition and the wordplay was nicely concealed. The usual abbreviation for ‘house’ has the letter A (from the clue) plus a three-letter word for a windmill sail (or the sort of thing used by Amazon delivery drivers) reversed (‘inverted’) above it (‘on top’).

5d Sick with centre of meal trapped in intestine (5)
The wordplay here involves a three-letter word for ‘sick’ having the central letters of ‘meal’ held inside (‘trapped’); I thought briefly that the ‘in’ was part of the wordplay, and was wondering why Azed hadn’t preferred ‘inside’, but quickly realised that it belonged to the definition.

7d Water rising in gushing upset, precipitous as before (8)
A three-letter word for the sort of water that might be passed is reversed (‘rising’) inside an anagram (‘gushing’) of UPSET, the ‘as before’ indicating that the word is not in current use. In reality, it  seems to be a hapax legomenon, appearing only in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 7, and even then without the E in sixth position:

And having climbed the ??????? heavenly hill,
Resembling strong youth in his middle age,
Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still,
Attending on his golden pilgrimage.

10d Old music maker creating minor misdeed in convent? (10)
I’m not sure why Azed didn’t just write this as “Old music maker’s minor misdeed in convent?”, but anyway the ‘creating’ is a link word and the (4-6) solution (including an apostrophe) describes some slightly dodgy dealing taking place without (one hopes) the mother superior’s knowledge.

17d One bit of plush held by hatter I’m turned off, cosmetic (8, 2 words)
The Roman numeral for ‘one’ and the first letter (‘bit’) of ‘plush’ are contained by an eight-letter word for a hatter from which a reversal (‘turned’) of the letters IM (from the clue) have been removed (‘off’). The solution is (3,5), which reminds me of a very old joke which I shall not include here for a variety of good reasons.

21d Sticker, ad scratched over in Bantu language (6)
A seven-letter word for something which sticks to something else (‘sticker’) with the letters AD (from the clue) omitted (‘scratched’) is followed by the usual (cricketing) abbreviation for ‘over’.

24d Poet penning number that’s lingual in part (6)
The poet whose surname is here containing (‘penning’) the single-character abbreviation for ‘number’ is Kathleen Jessica of that ilk, whose first book of poetry, Stone and Flower, was published in 1943. She wrote many quotable things, but she’s a one-hit wonder when it comes to the ODQ – she said in her autobiography that Gavin Maxwell was the love of her life (though that was never likely to work out well), and her sole entry is this fragment from The Marriage of Psyche:

He has married me with a ring, a ring of bright water
Whose ripples spread from the heart of the sea.

I wanted to add a suitable pun, but I’m otterly stumped. All contributions are welcome.

28d Part of kit that’s beaten, hand held (not half) (5)
A three-letter word for ‘beaten’ (in the ‘bashed’ sense) has HAND (from the clue) without the last two letters (‘not half’) in its grip (‘held’). According to Chambers (2-3) hyphenation of the solution is optional but not mandatory.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,601 Plain

Difficulty rating: (1.5 / 5)

First of all may I take this opportunity to wish all readers a very happy Easter – here’s hoping the Easter bunny has bestowed his bounty upon you. Regarding this puzzle, I felt it was well below the mid-point of the difficulty scale, and didn’t quite have the oomph of last week’s excellent offering, though it was reasonably entertaining while it lasted. 

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 11a, “To explain dodgy clue I’ll require day (9)”. The wordplay involves an anagram of CLUE I being followed by DATE (ie ‘day’), but the point of interest here is the extra “‘ll require”, which is there solely to improve the surface reading and fulfils no active function in the wordplay (it constitutes a ‘null juxtaposition indicator’), raising the question of whether the clue could have been written as the shorter ‘To explain dodgy clue I require day’.

The grammatical error in clues which is most often highlighted by editors is almost certainly the one seen in “I’m introduced to crazy spinster (4)” for MAID, the issue being that the wordplay would need to read “I is introduced…” in order to be sound (it’s the letter I that is being introduced). Here we have a very similar situation, but unusually it  occurs in the juxtaposition element – in order for the wordplay to be sound in my shortened version of the clue, it would have to read “To explain dodgy clue I requires a day”, which don’t sound quite right. The usual workaround is to draw on the future tense, so the MAID clue becomes “I’ll be introduced to crazy spinster” and the clue here becomes the one published.

12a Dip on this prom becomes increasingly crazy (4)
Only three weeks ago Azed provoked comment by his use of ‘prom’ to indicate a four-letter word which is I think a legitimate synonym for ‘promenade’ but perhaps not for the contracted version thereof (the end having probably been blown away in a gale). He uses the same definition for the word today, the result of putting the letters DIP in front of it (‘Dip on this’) being a word meaning ‘increasingly crazy’.

13a He has Moroccan tree planted within capital (6)
A nicely constructed clue, the letters HE (from the clue) having a four-letter word for the sandarac tree inserted (‘planted within’), and the definition being not at the beginning, as one might assume from the surface reading, but at the end.

17a Busily engaged? O, I dig on frantically at edges of fossilized mollusc (11)
A (2,2) phrase meaning ‘busily engaged’ has an anagram (‘frantically’) of O I DIG ON surrounding it (‘at the edges’). Adjectives of a technical nature are among the most difficult types of solution for setters to deal with, disguising the break between the wordplay and the definition being particularly tricky. Azed is a master of the art, as he demonstrates here. 

19a Murray and suchlike, one following in G. Player’s footsteps (4)
Generally speaking, the golfing world has not been kind to crossword setters when it comes to the names of the top players. Bryson DeChambeau offers distinctly limited possibilities, and the latest addition to the Augusta pantheon, Scottie Scheffler, is hardly (as Ned Flanders might observe) a shoo-in for cluein’. Hence we must be truly grateful to South Africa for producing a successor to Gary Player whose three-letter surname appears as part of 1,009 words in Chambers and when preceded by his first initial gives us the solution here. ‘Murray’ is a former spelling of ‘moray’.

22a Latin book, including one that’s not new in classical library (4)
The usual abbreviations for ‘Latin’ and ‘book’ are placed either side of (‘including’) the letters ONE (from the clue) without the standard abbreviation for ‘new’ (“that’s [ie that has] not new”), the result being the surname of James, the founder in 1911 of the library which features Greek and Latin classics produced in a format where the original text is presented on the left hand page and a translation is provided on the facing page. The books were originally issued by Heinemann in the UK but the current publisher is the Harvard University Press. In 1917, Virginia Woolf wrote:

“The **** Library, with its Greek or Latin on one side of the page and its English on the other, came as a gift of freedom. The existence of the amateur was recognised by the publication of this Library, and to a great extent made respectable. The difficulty of Greek is not sufficiently dwelt upon, chiefly perhaps because the sirens who lure us to these perilous waters are generally scholars [who] have forgotten what those difficulties are. But for the ordinary amateur they are very real and very great; and we shall do well to recognise the fact and to make up our minds that we shall never be independent of our ****.”

25a Ungenerous, that is without charge returned, recovers without lies (9)
A two-letter abbreviation for ‘that is’ contains a four-letter word for a charge (the sort that you might receive in a restaurant) that has been reversed (‘returned’) and is followed by a seven-letter word meaning ‘recovers’ from which the sequence LIES has been removed (‘without lies’). However, that first ‘without’ is a potential problem – whilst ‘without’ when used as an adverb can mean ‘on the outside’, so ‘x having y without’ is fine for ‘y contains x’, the ‘outside’ meaning of the preposition is given by Chambers as archaic. I don’t consider that ‘He is without his tent’ could mean that he is on the outside of it, and thus I don’t consider the preposition acceptable as a containment indicator. Neither do I think that a comma can be inferred between ‘without’ and ‘charge’, although that is probably more likely to have been Azed’s intention.

28a Come in, clasp working? (7, 2 words)
‘Come in’ here is used in the sense of ‘to become fashionable’, and the (5,2) phrase could be indicated by the last two words taken either separately or together.

29a Girl after a bit of excitement reverse saying no, losing head (6)
I think that the word ‘reverse’ was intended to read ‘reversed’ – both are valid when it comes to the wordplay, but ‘reverse’ doesn’t seem right in the surface reading. As written, the wordplay demands that after the first letter (‘a bit of’) ‘excitement’ the solver should reverse (the imperative form of the verb) a word meaning ‘saying no’ from which the first letter has been removed (‘losing head’).

31a Men will be involved with routine in this with nothing changing? (9)
A composite anagram &lit, where the letters of MEN and ROUTINE when rearranged (‘involved’) can form the solution (‘this’) plus O (‘nothing’) when likewise reordered (‘changing’). The whole clue stands as a slightly loose definition of the solution, but that sort of mild inexactitude is considered acceptable in &lit clues (indeed, such clues where the definition is of the standard which would be expected in a normal definition+wordplay clue are few and far between, and typically rather dull).

1d Going after notoriety (rumoured) German abused chit in local court once (11)
Azed seems to have become rather keen recently on the partial homophone, a device that I don’t much like at the best of times and, when (as in this clue) it produces a non-word as part of the wordplay, that I find unwelcome. Here we have a four-letter group which in the solution is pronounced similarly to a four-letter word for notoriety (ie, ‘notoriety (rumoured)’), following (‘going after’) which are the usual three-letter abbreviation for ‘German’ and an anagram (‘abused’) of CHIT.

5d Fancy assistant No. 1 being demoted to No. 4 (4)
Not an entirely original treatment of the solution, but the No. 1 / No. 4 thing is an innovation. The first letter (‘No. 1’) of a four-letter word for an assistant is moved down to fourth position (‘demoted to No. 4’).

6d Sign most of fruit is in credit with sun rising (11)
A seven-letter word for a type of fruit with its last letter removed (‘most of’) is put inside the standard two-letter abbreviation for ‘credit’, this being followed by a reversal (‘rising’) of the word SUN (from the clue).

7d Projectile launcher finally left, not having succeeded (6)
A concatenation of a (2,4) phrase meaning ‘finally’ and the usual one-letter abbreviation for ‘left’ is deprived of (‘not having’) the standard abbreviation for ‘succeeded’.

15d Couplets? Here’s very short one penned in Norfolk town (8)
A four-letter informal term for a very small person, taken from the stage name of the 4’6″ music hall comedian and dancer Harry Relph, is contained by (‘penned in’) the four-letter name of a Norfolk town that is a regular visitor to crosswords.

18d Orcadian landowner producing decorative slab in gold (7)
The two-letter heraldic tincture indicated by ‘gold’ will be familiar to all solvers, but the decorative slab or tile contained within it may well not be. It comes from the French language, and is also the surname of the actress Béatrice, perhaps best known for her starring role in Jean-Jacques Beineix’s 37°2 le matin (better known in the UK as Betty Blue).

20d Tea cake famously-short-lived: icer carelessly has left one in middle (6)
The reference here is to the oft-quoted humorous definition of the solution given by Chambers, ‘a cake, long in shape but short in duration’.

21d Element in couplet central to poet, singly paired (6)
A four-letter (gaseous, inert) chemical element is put inside the pair of letters in the middle of (‘central to’) the word ‘poet’, producing a (3-3) term more often seen as 3-2-3 or 1-2-1.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,600 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

I thought this was an enjoyable puzzle which hovered around the middle of the difficulty scale. Some very nice clues, none of the repetition (as far as I could see) that had raised its head in several recent puzzles, and not a lot for me to quibble about. Overall one of Azed’s best in recent times.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clues 32a, “English ploughed furrows, cold inside? Rifts according to the Scots (6)” and 30d, “After end of monsoon as of old harrow watercourses (5)”. Each of these clues uses a trademark Azed device – in the first we might assume that ‘Rifts according to the Scots’ is pointing us towards a Scottish word for ‘rifts’, and in the second that ‘as of old harrow’ indicates an old word for ‘harrow’, but of course we would be wrong. In the former clue, we are looking for a familiar word defined by the Scots word ‘rifts’, and in the latter for another common word equivalent to the archaic interjection ‘harrow!’. I rather like this application of a classification to the definition rather than the word defined, although I know that it is not to everybody’s taste – I used something similar myself in a puzzle and the editor was, shall we say, less than enthusiastic…

1a See subordinate with time for a break learning to earn a crust (11)
A nice one to get us started, being an anagram of SUBORDINATE with the usual abbreviation for ‘time’ replacing the letter A (‘time for a’) and featuring a literal definition of the solution. You may  wonder why Azed has added that ‘See’ at the beginning of the clue, but if you try out the wordplay after removing it all will become clear.

11a Strong drink artist tipped over more than half of historical document (8)
The usual two-letter abbreviation taken to represent an artist is reversed (‘tipped over’) and followed by six of the ten letters which make up the name of a famous historical document. After the unfortunate spillage referred to here it probably needed to go in the wash. From the Wham! Annual 1968 – Q: Where was the M**** C**** signed? A: At the bottom. 

21a I’m surprised to be keeping near drunk as aid to retaining balance (7)
Here we have a two-letter interjection meaning “I’m surprised” containing (‘to be keeping’) a two-letter word meaning ‘near’ and a three-letter word for ‘drunk’.

25a Old couple not active in the household (5)
The sort of household which might be à trois has the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘active’ removed (‘not active’) in order to produce an archaic word meaning ‘[to] couple’.

31a She’s sometimes lazy, coming from the country, opening tin (5)
A three-letter abbreviation for a particular country is inserted into the chemical symbol for tin, the result being a name which when preceded by ‘lazy’ is a term for a device most often seen these days (in my limited experience, anyway) on the large round tables in some Chinese restaurants. A form of dumb-waiter, some claim that the name derives from its invention by Thomas Jefferson in response to the complaints of his daughter (whose name you can guess) that she always got served last and therefore left the table hungry; others give the credit to Thomas Edison, who also had a daughter with the relevant appellation. It seems more likely that the name was simply chosen as a marketing ploy in order to give it general appeal, as reflected in an advertisement in a 1917 edition of Vanity Fair for a ‘Revolving Server or Lazy *****.  

33a Set of bells, including start of octave, rings well (6)
The ‘start of octave’ which is included in the four-letter word for a set of bells tuned to each other is not the letter O but rather the syllable representing the first note of the scale (now usually replaced by ‘doh’). The definition is neatly disguised, and although you might argue that ‘rings well’ ought to indicate a verb rather than a noun, Azed has always been of the opinion “barks and is man’s best friend” is a valid definition of ‘dog’, so here you just need to infer an ‘it’ before the ‘rings [a] well’.

34a Fungicidal compound, litre distributed? I’ll have none inserted (7)
Here we have an anagram (‘distributed’) of LITRE into which is inserted the name of our setter (‘I’) when reduced to two letters and the usual single-character representation of ‘nothing’ or ‘zero’. The grammar of the wordplay strikes me as a bit of a stretch, but I’m not complaining.

35a Mixed dish to bring on, going round – cut edging off (4)
A (4,3) phrase meaning ‘to bring on’ has the letters CUT removed from the outside (‘cut edging off’) and is reversed (‘going round’). The result is the name given in Spanish-speaking countries to an earthen jar or pot used for cooking, but it is also applied to a dish of meat and vegetables cooked in such a pot.

4d Being full, here’s dish lad’s left for particular one (5)
One of the few clues in this puzzle that I wasn’t too keen on involves a five-letter word for a dish of vegetables or herbs in which the letters LAD have been replaced by a three-letter diminutive of a particular man’s name (‘particular one’, ie the name of a particular lad)…

7d Scribbled blog in base? Base indeed (7)
…and this is the other one I wasn’t too enthusiastic about, simply because I don’t think that ‘base’ is sufficient to indicate the E which follows an anagram (‘scribbled’) of BLOG IN, even though I’ve seen it used in this way many times before. Yes, e is the base of Napierian logarithms, but any number seems to me equally valid as a ‘base’; I’d be happy with ‘log base’ as that certainly narrows down the likely options. I wouldn’t have any problem with ‘transcendental’ for e, as the only other transcendental that springs to mind is pi.

8d English Queen about reign formerly: ‘My colours will not fade‘ (9)
I thought initially that Anne might be the English Queen required here, but it turned out that she was simply a compound of a three-letter abbreviation for ‘English’ and a one-letter abbreviation (as used by E Windsor rather than M Carlsen) for ‘Queen’, and needed to be set about a Spenserian spelling of the word ‘reign’.

9d What may be part of radical combination, ideal for singer? (7)
A (3,4) description of something with which any singer would like to be blessed, and the name of a chemical compound which is the result of a couple of methyl radicals combining with a carbonyl group, or something along those lines. Yes, I do have a chemistry degree, but (a) it was a long time ago, and (b) I wasn’t very good at it.

15d Underwear of a kind, wedding kit for the groom? (9, 2 words)
A charade of a five-letter term for a wedding and a four-letter word for something the groom would almost certainly wear on his wedding day produces a name used largely in the US for a one-piece undergarment extending to the ankles, more commonly known in the UK as ‘combs’.

22d Shift: did Abraham return this after time away? (4)
It seems entirely reasonable that at some point during his 175 year span Abraham would have taken a break from his travels and returned to the place of his birth. I’m slightly surprised that Azed didn’t italicize the word ‘this’ in the clue, since it certainly needs to be stressed when reading the wordplay.

24d Rising stink left one in a kerfuffle (6)
A four-letter word for a stink (and the name of a famous bear) is reversed (‘rising’) ahead of the usual abbreviation for ‘left’ and a single-letter word for ‘one’.  The (4-2) solution derives from a French exclamation (spelt with a U rather that a second O) accompanying a quick or sudden movement, which has come in English (with the spelling here) to mean commotion or ballyhoo.

26d Verses composed by young females incorporating literal extremes (6)
The wordplay here has a four-letter word for ‘young females’ containing (‘incorporating’) the first and last letters of the alphabet (‘literal extremes’).

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Azed puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

While I – of course – believe that the views presented are valid, I realize that (i) I am not infallible, and (ii) in the world of the crossword there are many areas where opinions will differ. I say what I think, but I don’t intend thereby to stifle discussion – I would encourage readers who disagree with the views that I express, whether in the blog posts or in response to comments, to make their feelings known…I shall not be offended!

Azed 2,599 Plain

Difficulty rating: (2.5 / 5)

Despite there being mention of misprints in the footnotes (a hangover from the 50^th anniversary puzzle), this is a plain crossword of somewhere around average difficulty. I didn’t think it was one of Azed’s very best, but it contained some nicely deceptive clues along with a couple about which I was less enthusiastic.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to take a look at clue 6d, “Nashgab, smart, one supplanting English (6)”. The wordplay here involves the letter A (‘one’) replacing (‘supplanting’) E (‘English’) in a six-letter word meaning ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’, but the point of interest is the definition. Chambers shows the solution as being a Scottish word, which would normally require the definition to be qualified accordingly (“Jock’s chatter”, “Prattle in Edinburgh” etc), but Azed here has used a ploy which I suspect is more often seen in his puzzles than any others, the use of one term with a specific classification in Chambers to indicate a solution with the same classification, ‘nashgab’ being similarly shown as ‘Scot‘. In the same way, ‘jagged’, say, could be used for ‘crocked’, both being American words for ‘drunk’.

3a Quickly insert something to repair tap after start of seepage (10)
A five-letter word for something that would be used to make a repair and a four-letter word for a tap follow the first letter (‘start’) of ‘seepage’, the result being a verb meaning ‘to insert (words etc) hastily into a narrative’, more familiar to most of us, I suspect, as the noun from which it derives, describing a fowl dish. Incidentally, there is plenty of scope to define a word like this in a way which is grammatically unsound (eg ‘Hastily add words to’), but needless to say Azed has avoided the trap.

11a My child, a girl (not Di)coming after a boy (7)
This clue is of a type I find deeply unsatisfactory and which has been outlawed in recent times by a number of crossword editors, involving the use of ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ (here we get both!) to indicate a random given name – there are just way too many of them. A five-letter girl’s name from which the letters DI have been removed (‘not Di’) follows a four-letter boy’s name. British move buffs will be reminded of Sheridan/Bates, while those more disposed towards popular music may be thinking along the lines of Washington/Price.

15a Evil, devious foreigner mostly getting to conceal shameful deeds (8, 3 words)
A tricky wordplay, where an anagram (‘devious’) of EVIL is followed by a five-letter word for a foreigner (such as Sting in NY) from which the last letter has been removed (‘mostly’).

18a Bother keeps besetting head (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘keeps’ or ‘possesses’ is here containing (‘besetting’) a crossword favourite meaning a headland or an Ethiopian prince. Interestingly, the OED, while showing the word to be derived from the Arabic for a head or chief, does not give the former meaning – I wonder where Chambers got it from?

28a One answer to air pollution making mark, involving collaborative group? (8, 2 words)
A four-letter word for a mark or blemish containing (‘involving’) a four-letter word for a group working together produces a (5,3) type of vehicle about which Wikipedia says “The search for renewable energy sources has led to an occasional resurgence of interest in [the technology which such a vehicle employs]”.

30a Flock of ducks, mute? Not one duck (4)
A five-letter musical term meaning ‘muted’ or ‘damped’ loses one of its ‘ducks’ (the usual single-letter sort) to produce a term for a flight or flock of mallards.

1d Aged catch, with head displaying aloof manner (10)
A charade of a two-letter word meaning ‘aged’ (as in ‘a boy aged fourteen’) , a four-letter word meaning ‘to catch and bring out of water’, and another (see 18a) word for a head or headland much beloved of crossword setters. ‘Displaying’ is simply there to link the wordplay to the definition, but it could be seen as suggesting that the answer is an adjective rather than a noun, which strikes me as bordering on the unfair.

7d Suffer with relative whom locals regard as a fool (7)
A four-letter word for ‘suffer’, in the way that one might suffer from a particular medical condition, is followed by an abbreviation of ‘relative’. I would have preferred to see “, one whom locals regard as a fool” as the definition.

9d 50% of state leaving for spiritual leader (5)
The letters that remain when five have been lost (‘50%…leaving’) from the ten-letter name of a US state form an abbreviation of that name given by Chambers, so they could have been indicated in the clue by ‘State’ on its own, although this leads to difficulties in combining wordplay and definition – ‘State title of religious ruler’, perhaps.

17d He’s left among group having to hurry over leaflet (8)
The wordplay here has the letters HE (from the clue) placed (‘left’) inside (‘among’) a three-letter word for a group, with a three-letter word meaning ‘to hurry’ on top (‘having…over’).

19d Grease applied to help old siren (7)
Although Chambers shows the four-letter word used here for ‘grease’ as Shakespearean in its noun form, it gives no classification to the verb form – I think this is an error, but if that’s what Chambers says then as far as barred crosswords go it’s correct. Anyway, this word (which also describes, rather more commonly, a sewn join) is followed by a much more familiar word meaning ‘to help[‘, the result being a Shakespearean word for a mythical creature of the aquatic kind.

23d Former kick, if delivered by Old Nick coming up on one’s rear end (6)
A seven-letter word for the Devil (‘Old Nick’) has the letters IF removed (‘if delivered’) before being reversed and put on top of the last letter of ‘one’ (“one’s rear end”). The ‘Former’ is there to indicate that the spelling seen here is an obsolete one.

24d Trader, one invited in by late-lamented funny man? (6)
A one-letter word for ‘one’ is contained (‘invited in’) by the surname of a funny man who sadly died in January of this year. A brilliant comedy performer, he was even more outstanding as a writer, his partnership with John Junkin in particular producing some memorable scripts. A true great of radio comedy in the second half of the 20^th century, here’s one of his (many) jokes:

You know about the guy who shot a golden eagle. He was in court in front of a magistrate. The magistrate said: “This is a dreadful thing”.
He said: “I never intended to. I was shooting pheasants and it flew into my line of fire.”
The magistrate said, “Okay. Out of interest, what did you do with it?”
He said: “I ate it.”
The magistrate said: “Good god, what did it taste like?”
He replied: “Rather like swan.”

25d Ecclesiastic gown moved gradually and rustled (5)
I rather hoped that the wordplay here would involve the letters AND being removed from a word meaning ‘moved gradually’ to produce the gown. In the event it turned out to be a triple-definition clue, but the surface reading is still very satisfactory.

26d Dry up after ten? Try a sherry (5)
The wordplay requires a poetic word meaning ‘dry’ to be reversed (‘up’) following the usual single-letter representation of ‘ten’. The drink may not be weak, but the definition is: the word ‘Try’ is redundant, while the indefinite article is worse than that – the solution is not a type of sherry, it is sherry, being the name of the city whence the drink originated. The clue raises the question of whether Roman numerals can be used as ordinals as well as cardinals – I don’t see why they shouldn’t, so ‘Dry up after tenth sherry’ would have been a possibility here.

(definitions are underlined)